Tony - Japan 2025 Planning - Take One

[Tony Galiani]

Is half a Kei truck better than none?

[cteno4]

Wall sculpture? I just saw the other night on the counting car tv show (they make custom cars) cutting a fiberglass pho roadster body in half lengthwise so they could paint each half with wild murals to be large wall art with half a car sticking out of the wall. They have also turned the rear end of a car/trunk being a couch.

 

jeff

[Tony Galiani]

Sunday morning started with another relaxing breakfast at our hotel.  Which has turned out to be a pretty good value.  After that, our first stop was Kochi's Sunday Market which apparently has been going for 300 years or so.  It stretches for quite a ways with local vendors offering food - fruits, vegetables, fish, baked good and such as well as some crafts.  In Mira's home town, the samosas are legendary and the line-ups to purchase them got so long and were clogging up the market aisles that they built an outdoor samosa shed for those vendors.  We found the equivalent popular item about halfway down the market - a vendor selling some sort of fired dough thingies.  The line stretched around in back of their stall and down the sidewalk.  Of course, everyone knows that frying makes anything better.

 

The market ended by Kochi Castle but we opted to head back to JR Kochi Station as our plan was to go to the Paper Museum. We walked through the shopping arcade to the main street and found some sort of break dance competition for kids.  They were doing their thing with enthusiasm under the watchful eyes of some very serious judges who were taking notes.  We also passed some sort of sport even with a huge line up - at the end of which kids got to throw at a target.  There was a Choco Cro / St. Marc Cafe there so we stopped for a quick snack.  As always, while we puzzled out what to do - you had to use tongs to pick your items and put them on a tray - a woman in the line used gestures to show us what to do.  We enjoyed our snack - and the excellent jazz music featuring some deconstructed standards.  Then outside to find the line had hardly moved.  Mira thought these kids had to have super patient parents who would stand in line for 40 minutes so they could do a game toss for about 5 minutes.  Also on the way was a tug of war - all being refereed and videoed.

 

Time to get going though there was yet another festival performance in the plaza in front of the station to delay us a bit more.  We purchased tickets and for some odd reason when I asked for return tickets, the ticket agent could not provide them but indicated we should get them at Ino Town.  Which actually turned out to be good as that prompted us to take the opportunity to ride the tram back in - the tram stop and the JR station are only a block apart and the lines run parallel for part of the way.

 

The museum was not busy but staff seemed happy to see us and we spent a pleasant time there.  Mira had the opportunity to make some paper so that was fun.  They had a video about paper making with an English cheat sheet so that helped us understand the process and the area a bit better.  We walked back to the tram stop via some side streets along a little canal which we thought our Springers would have loved as they would have been in and out of the water.

 

Took the tram back even though it was a bit longer.  It did have the advantage of stopping close to the shopping arcade we found the festival still going on with a performance stage.  Thinking it was just starting we went to get a light dinner only to come back to find out it was just ending.  So back to Choco Cro for some dessert to console ourselves before heading to the hotel and calling it a day.  I took advantage of that time to sort my tram photos and post them in a separate thread.

 

Ciao,

Tony

Edited March 10 by Tony Galiani
hit the submit tab my mistake

[Tony Galiani]

I keep posting too quickly and then need to edit and finish so left off photos on my last post.  So catching up:

dance competition

festival performance

our ride to Ino Town at Kochi Station and then at Ino Town

Mira making paper.

Ciao,

Tony

[kuro68000]

Thanks Tony, really enjoying these posts. I wish we had kei trucks here. As they move to EV I'm looking forward to seeing what people do with them. No emissions means they can be used indoors, and provide electrical power like a giant power bank.

[UnfinishedKit]

I drove a Nissan Sakura kei car a couple of years ago in Tokyo. Fantastic little car with tech more than equal to much bigger and more expensive cars, manages to fit 4 adults as well
 

(As a non-car owner who (sort of) works in the auto industry I struggle to see why most people would want anything bigger than (ok not-really, people have all kinds of needs and desires, the auto industry is incredibly good at marketing to activate these and build on them))

[Tony Galiani]

As car owner in the US, I wish I could buy a small car as that is all I need but they aren't sold there any more.  I suppose a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla could be considered small but even they have gotten bigger.  Seeing lots of Toyota Yarises or Yarisii (not sure what the plural is) and that would be ideal for me.  Had a Renault 5 (Le Car in America) years ago and thought it was great.

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

Yesterday was - finally! - a sort of low key day for us.  Thanks to @Ekiben who suggested a ride on the Tosa Kuroshio's Gomen-Nahari Line, we had a plan for the day.  Mira purchased day passes for us and I picked up tickets for the Nanpu ride from Kochi to Gomen where we connected with the TKT train.  Or, to be precise, the TKT single car DMU.

 

It was sort of funny since as we pulled out of Kochi on our JR train, we spotted the TKT train pulling into Kochi Station.  What?!  Turns out that some, but not all, TKT service run into Kochi.  We chatted with a women from Melbourne on the train - who was taking her grandson around Japan - and she had wanted to leave earlier in the day but the first TKT train to Kochi wasn't until after 10:00 AM.  The Tosa Kuroshio's web site leaves a lot to be desired - lots of good pictures and blurbs on the area but no schedule (or, at least, not one that we could find).  Anyway, we were on our way and enjoyed the s l o w ride down the coast.

 

There is an open air platform on the water side of the train for those who want to enjoy the ride on the outside.  Spent a little time out there but mostly inside enjoying the front view.  We decide to go to Nahari and work our way back.  Took about an hour and twenty minutes until we arrived at the end of the line.  There was not much to do there but we wandered around and for some odd reason ended up in a bakery where we had coffee and excellent pastries.

 

Then on to Ioki to see the cave.  I was actually enjoying the infrastructure and the trains on the route.  There is a small depot near the end of the line where there were several of the lines DMUs and a permanent way train and shunter.  Ioki was one spot that is all in on tourists as there were clear signs to the cave and information on the area on the way.  The cave is actually rather small - more a tunnel than a cave - but it leads out to a path along a creek through steep walls.  Spectacular in a sort of low key way if that makes sense.  We went about 200 meter to a point where the going was a bit rough, and in consideration to our travel history, our age and Mira's penchant for trying out the health systems in different countries, we decided that was enough and made our way back along the route and to the station.

 

Next stop was Wakiji for a walk on the beach.  We had met the Australian woman at Ioki who told us free bikes were available at Aki for rides around town to the old Samurai residences but the beach was our preferred option.  We had a semi-nice walk on the beach in the time between trains though Mira was surprised at the flotsam and some garbage on the beach.  I had read Moby Duck (which discusses how this happens) so was not so surprised.  Walking along we saw lots of flood gates and we noted emergency signage and refuges along the entire route - earthquakes and tsunamis are a real threat and fact of life here.

 

After that we caught a Rapid Express which took us all the way back to Kochi (though it was neither particularly rapid and seemed to stop at most of the stations on the way.  Back to the hotel after some gyozas for dinner and buying our tickets for today's travel:  Nanpu to Okayama and then Shinkansen to Tokyo.

 

I will sort out pictures on the ride and post them a bit later.

Tony

[chadbag]

2 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

As car owner in the US, I wish I could buy a small car as that is all I need but they aren't sold there any more.  I suppose a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla could be considered small but even they have gotten bigger.  Seeing lots of Toyota Yarises or Yarisii (not sure what the plural is) and that would be ideal for me.  Had a Renault 5 (Le Car in America) years ago and thought it was great.

Tony

 

Is the Yaris no longer available in the US?  I don't follow Toyota but I've seen a lot of Toyota Yaris in the last decade.

[RS18U]

1 hour ago, chadbag said:

 

Is the Yaris no longer available in the US?  I don't follow Toyota but I've seen a lot of Toyota Yaris in the last decade.

In Canada, where we love our small sedans more than in the US, the smallest Toyota sedan now is the Corolla.  It looks like the Yaris was discontinued in Canada and the US in 2020.

[cteno4]

We have scant small cars with much of any cargo space. Last year i spent months searching. Kia Nero phev finally turned out to have both the gas economy and nice ev range, and very good cargo space, but it was really the only choice. The few small gas only cars with some cargo space got pretty poor mileage for a small car. A little kei van would probably do me great, but i would never fit well in it nor would it survive in the sea of mega SUVs around here. That last little kei truck i saw locally is was surprised the bed space was as big or bigger than a gigantic cyber truck and way more useful and easy to use. It really is messed up psychological manipulation in auto marketing. I dont get it at all.

 

jeff

[Tony Galiani]

Okay - I thought it would be neat to post the pictures from yesterday while I was on the train as both JR Shikoku and the Tokaido Shinkansen theoretically have free WiFi.  But in reality ....

On our Nampu JR Shikoku requires you to enter your e-mail to which they send a verification to connect.  That worked fine .... for about 10 minutes.  It was weak and then cut out.  To restore it - repeat above process.  So I did not bother with that.

On the Tokaido Shinkansen, I connected but download speeds were so glacial that every connection attempt would time out.

So having arrived in Tokyo, I am going to post yesterday's pictures.

 

JR Shikoku MOW equipment parked at Gorem where we connected with the TKT train.  View from the front at a passing point on the line.

 

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

End of the line at Nahiri and a warning sign with blossoms.

[Little-Kinder]

Hey there tony, common mistake, it's actually plum (ume) and not cherry blossom (sakura)
They bloom earlier than the cherry trees, sakura is more whitish than fully pink

 

There is actually a forecast for cherry blossom in japan

 

Edited March 11 by Little-Kinder

[Tony Galiani]

Our ride from Nahiri to Ioki then our ride from Ioki to Wajiki.  The other picture shows part of the route beyond the cave at Ioki.  Look on the lower right for a figure to give scale to the picture.

[Tony Galiani]

TKT MOW equipment caught from our train, the beach at Wakiji and our last ride of the day.  Also, last and maybe least, one of our hotel's "famous" waffles.  Didn't really need it but felt I should have one to honor their free breakfast.

Ciao,

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

@Little-Kinder - I was wondering.  We thought the plum blossom season was over though it was too soon for cherry blossoms but being a city boy, I really had no idea.  Just pink flowers to me.
Tony

[N-Osoi]

I’m sure we probably crossed paths Tony! I’m now in Kyoto (again). There are blossoms of some kind when you take the SL ride at the railway museum! 

[Kingmeow]

6 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

Our ride from Nahiri to Ioki then our ride from Ioki to Wajiki.  The other picture shows part of the route beyond the cave at Ioki.  Look on the lower right for a figure to give scale to the picture.

 

 

 

Surprise to see the chipped paint on the top!  So not Japanese!  🙂

 

Glad you are having a good time.  We are *starting* to plan our trip for end of September.  5 weeks have now turned into 6!  😲  We may try ANA Premium Economy but it will have to be out of JFK (yuck!).

[RS18U]

6 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

Okay - I thought it would be neat to post the pictures from yesterday while I was on the train as both JR Shikoku and the Tokaido Shinkansen theoretically have free WiFi.  But in reality ....

We have found the same thing so like you just gave up.  Great commentary and pictures, thanks for continuing to take the time to share them despite connection issues.  These last couple of days have given me ideas for when we visit Shikoku.

[Tony Galiani]

@Kingmeow - This is just based on our observations but Shikoku seems to be less prosperous than other parts of Japan we have been to.  The infrastructure is not quite as good and along the TKT route to Nahiri, we saw a lot of rundown buildings and even some of the places in Kochi - such as the arcades we went to - were not as nice as elsewhere.

 

They have also had to invest in infrastructure which is expensive.  The TKT line along the coast is elevated most of the way, there were flood gates along the beaches and we saw emergency towers regularly placed along the areas by the coast.  I think (from what our phone translation said) was that these were possible refuges in case of a tsunami.

 

On the other hand, people seemed more relaxed and friendly.  Certainly the festival goers were really enjoying themselves and the enthusiasm was catching.  After our visit to Takamatsu I felt I found Shikoku to be a place I wanted to visit again and this visit just reinforced that.  Hope to come back to get to western Shikoku at some point (and wouldn't mind revisiting any of the places we have been to elsewhere in Shikoku).

 

And, I have felt a bit sad after leaving Shikoku for our trip to Tokyo - partially because it means our visit to Japan is nearing an end but also because we had such a great time there.

 

On another note, it is great to be in the NYC area as there are so many direct flight options.  On the other hand, it does mean going through airports like JFK ....

 

Hope your plans for the Fall work out.  We too are thinking of another Fall trip to Japan (and maybe SIngapore and Taiwan) but are in wait and see mode right now.  Looks like we might have some economic head winds and since my previously well managed state retirement plan has decided that Bitcoin is a sound investment plan, who knows.  (Thankfully, I am not reliant on that!)

It is going to be interesting to see how airfares go.  Delta just announce they were cutting their earnings prediction for this quarter and there seems to be some softening in demand in general.  When we fly United, I start getting upgrade purchase offers right after buying the tickets.  For our flight over they started high but dropped dramatically - over 60% reduction by the time we checked in and that hasn't happened before.

For our return flight, I put in an upgrade request using my points and not only did it clear, it cleared days before the usual 72 hour window.  Then, when I went on line to confirm my seats, I was surprised to find the plane half empty.  Haven't seen that in a long time.

 

BTW - fly ANA if you can - it is a great airline.  You may want to check out fares via Chicago or Houston.  I know that means making a connection but sometimes that fare option might be better.

 

Ciao,

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

@RS18U - Thanks.  I guess it is obvious but I highly recommend Shikoku and getting off the main tourist axis on Honshu.  A couple of thoughts that might help in future planning:

 

I think it is good to be flexible but a little research does help.  We lucked out with the castle illuminations in Fukuoka and - big time - with the festival in Kochi.  Stumbling on that event Saturday night was one of the highlights of our trip and of course it makes me wonder what other cool things we might have overlooked.

 

And without @Ekiben's timely suggestion we would have missed out on the TKT trip along the coast which was also very nice if low key.  With some research, we might have been able to take even better advantage of it.  For example, we might have allowed time to visit the Samurai residences in Aki which we only found out about from that Australian woman we met on the TKT train.

 

We missed out on connecting with a local guide in Shikoku due to timing.  We discovered this too late to set anything up - by the time we reached out, there was no one available.  The Kochi office suggests that requests should be made at least two weeks in advance and, preferably, further out.

 

Cheers,

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

Posting from Tokyo as our trip winds down and trying to readjust after our time on Kyushu and Shikoku.  Travel yesterday was relatively easy and pleasant.  The Nampu 8 we rode across Shikoku was comfortable and we made an easy connection to the Shinkansen in Okayama.  I allowed a bit of a layover at Okayama - about 40 minutes - to make the connection less stressful and to pick up some snacks and that worked out well.

 

Some random thoughts from our trip so far:

 

I am not sure where the Japanese economy would be without cats.  There are cat items for sale everywhere (and I must confess we have bought some as well).  And, if not items for sale, then things are cat themed - like our cups in Caffe Veloce.  And - sorry @ED75-775 - but Starbucks has dropped to number 4 on our cafe list.  We always like to try and find a local place but failing that, we are enamored of Caffe Veloce and St. Mark Cafe - both of which have not too loud and really interesting jazz on their sound systems.

 

We have found people to be super friendly, at least so far in Kyushu and even more so in Shikoku.  Mira was just looking up 

Shikoku on the interweb and came across a blurb about Shikoku being the least visited and underdeveloped part of Japan and that it remains a world apart and mysterious even for many Japanese.

 

Liking our IC card (Suica) which also worked in Fukuoka for convenience store and metro purchases.  It does not work on Shikoku though and having some cash was really handy, especially when we were further out from Kochi city center.  We used cash at the Ino Paper Museum and at the bakery in Nahiri both of which did not take plastic.

 

Cheers,

Tony

[RS18U]

Thanks @Tony Galiani, all good info.  We have made it a habit of getting off the beaten path as much as we can since we did all the 'big' spots back in '14.  Too bad about the Sucia cards in Shikoku but good to know now rather than fishing for coins when you weren't expecting to need them.

[Tony Galiani]

Yesterday was our first full day in Tokyo and we were (are) sort of subdued as we near the end of our trip and our return home.  Weather was also iffy which didn't help.  Our initial plan was to do some shopping - I have a small list of train items and Mira is looking for some art supplies and fabric.  You can tell we are in a bit of a slump - our third bag (which we bring along to fill up with fun stuff) is only half full rather than bulging at the seams)!

 

Anyway, I had wanted to go to Nakano Broadway so we made that our first destination.  You can tell we are rookies as we got there before noon which is when many of the shops open.  Happily, Daiso was open so we spent some time there and I purchased some modeling supplies - I was surprised to see they have a Diorama line with some trees and ground cover so had to buy some.  Then to a nearby cafe for lattes to prepare ourselves for when the hobby stores opened.

 

Nakano Broadway is intriguing as there are a bunch of Mandarakes and other anime/manga shops but also some high end jewelry stores which look out of place there, at least to me.  I found a small, really small, train shop on the second floor and was pleased to see that it had the two key items I wanted - a Kato EH-500 and a Tomix Hakodate Liner set.  For once, I was prepared and had price info and the shop's prices compared favorably to Plaza Japan and HobbySearch with the added advantage of no tax and shipping charges.  So pleased with that.  Also bought three sets of Tomix containers and as he was packing up my items, the shop owner gifted me the 2025 Kato catalog so that was a nice surprise.

 

After that, we headed back - me to the hotel to drop off our purchases and Mira to go to the fabric store at Ueno.  After my brief pit stop I headed up there as well to meet her.  There is a Uni Qlo in the same building as the fabric shop so Mr. Big Spender stopped there to buy two pairs of socks.  Which would prove to be fortuitous as the pair I had on got soaked in the heavy rain later and I did not want to resort to the wool socks I had brought along expecting cooler weather.

 

We ambled down from Ueno to Akihabara with a stop at Caffe Veloce for a break.  I then checked out several hobby shops while Mira went to Bic Camera.  Hobbyland Poochi and the others were disappointing as prices for used items were high and while they had plenty of repackaged used buses, I could not find any of the cars and trucks I was looking for.  Together we did a quick stop at Yodobashi but no Kato No. 4 or Wye turnouts available.  I did pick up a few scenic items and paint holders.

 

We had logged a few miles (kilometers) at this point and getting tired, we decide to grab a quick meal so ended up squeezing ourselves into a small gyoza shop for dinner.  We got a bit wet getting there and even wetter getting back to the hotel so were happy to call it a day.

 

We don't want to go (too) crazy with shopping though we don't often get opportunities to visit the shops available in Tokyo so will at least start the day with a bit of shopping.  Mira wants to go to Bumpodo, an art supply store, so I will take advantage of that to visit the guitar shop across the way.  There is also a Daiso nearby - I had forgotten to pick up some plastic boxes to protect my small items on the trip back so another excuse to check out that store.  And Bumpodo has an excellent small cafe so I already have visions of their fluffy cinnamon toast with cream sauce floating in my head!

 

After that not sure.  In the next two days we want to get to Shinjuku for the illumination show at the Metropolitan Building and a tonkatsu dinner at Saboten so maybe today.  Or maybe some of the museums at Ueno.  We shall see.  Weather looks better with no rain forecast for today and sunny tomorrow so that is pleasing.

 

Ciao,

Tony